We’ll be fusing layers of old grocery bags together to create a stronger “fabric” for our new bags. Let’s get started!1. Gather your mound of old grocery bags. After experimenting with various bags (and my iron) I found that Target bags work best. They result in a stronger finished “fabric”, with less holes, and a brighter white color:I guess Target needs to add #6. Melt into an even cuter bag. I chose to only use the white portion of my bags. I have seen many versions which include the store logos and look pretty cool. I referenced this and this when learning to fuse plastic. Some VERY impressive ideas in there. A dress? LOVE it. Okay, so…..Cut the bottom, top and sides off of your bag.Lay the long rectangular sheet flat. Repeat the process with 8 bags and lay them all on top of each other. Then sandwich them between two pieces of parchment paper (one tutorial mentioned using Freezer Paper. Do NOT do this. It will fuse TO your plastic. You must use Parchment Paper):This is the tricky part, so I won’t sugar coat it. It took five tries before I got this right and was very ready to GIVE UP. But I tried it one more time and it worked! You need to play with your iron settings and the number of plastic layers you have. I found that the “cotton” setting on my iron and 8 layers of Target bags were the perfect balance (for me). Your iron will react differently, so start by ironing small portions of your bag layers to see what it does. It will get little wrinkles as it melts together. But it shouldn’t shrink and shrivel up too bad. If that happens, your iron is too hot.

I found that the best way is to start at the bottom and press the iron up, to get any air bubbles out. Keep your iron moving constantly around on the plastic. Periodically check under the parchment paper to see if it’s working. When the front side looks fused, flip the sandwich over and repeat the process on the other side. Whichever side you want to be the “right” side of you fabric, you should iron last. That will result in a smoother finish (while the underside will be more wrinkled)When you’re all done, it should look like this, a large sheet of plastic:Continue the process so that you have sheets of this new “fabric” to work with. I made 6 sheets for my 4 bags (which means almost 50 Target bags!)2. Cut out your bag pieces. Take your long sheet and fold it in half to see how much bag you can get out of it. You can make your bags as small or large as you like.With my sheets of “fabric” and judging how many bags I wanted to make, I chose these dimensions for my bag.You will need: (2) front and back pieces (11×11) (3) side and bottom pieces (11×5) (2) handle pieces (21×2)(picture shows some finished elements that will be explained in steps below)Cut out your bag pieces using a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler.3. Personalize your bag with words. Using your computer (or drawing by hand), print off the letters you want to put on your bag. If you own a Cricut scrapbooking machine, this would make the process much faster.

Trace the letters on to your fabric with a marker. If your fabric is lightweight, double-layer it or add interfacing to the back to give it more strength. I double-layered mine. Trace the letters backwards, so that there are no leftover pen marks when you flip them over:Cut out the letters and sew them to the front of your bag. Start with the middle letter so that your word is evenly spaced on your bag:I chose to use a contrasting blue thread:Continue sewing all the letters to the front of your bag:4. Sew your Straps. Adding fabric to the straps is optional. I like the splash of color. So,cut two fabric strips slightly larger than the straps (makes it easier to sew them together, without having to be as precise).Sew the plastic straps and the fabric together, on the outside of the fabric. You won’t be turning anything inside out with this project.Then using a contrasting thread, serge off the edges of your straps. * This is an optional step. If you don’t have a serger, just trim the edges of your straps OR zigzag the edges to keep the green fabric from fraying. * Squeeze a dab of Fray Check on the ends of your serged edges to keep them from unraveling. I was out of Fray Check, so I just left the edges as-is. Over time though, they will slowly unravel at the ends.To make your handles stronger and easier to hold, fold the middle portion in-half and sew it down:Decide where you’d like the straps on your bag and pin them down:Sew around your straps, in a square pattern:Then sew an “X” across each strap, to reinforce the attachment:It should look something like this:5. Sew your bag together. Serge JUST the tops of your Front, Back, and two side pieces. * If you don’t have a serger, leave them plain or do a zigzag stitch.Then, starting with your Front and bottom pieces sew the two together, right on the outside of the bag:Do the same with the Back and the bottom piece:Serge off both seams on the outside of the bag. * if you don’t have a serger, leave it plain or do a zigzag stitch.This part is slightly tricky. Sew one of the side pieces to the Front of your bag. Start from the top, go down………and when you get to the bottom portion, lift your presser foot and shift the bag a bit so it continues to sew all the way around….….and then continue it up the Back side of the bag too:Do the same with the other side of the bag. And serge off the edges. * if you don’t have a serger, leave it plain or do a zigzag stitch.And….you’re done!If you’re up for more, try a medley of variations. One for each food group:This fits a one Gallon Milk jug perfectly. I used to tell the checker No bags for the milk. But I really hate it when the jug leaves a milky residue on my car. So we’re baggin it classy now! And you can too. Enjoy!Please visit us at MADE for more ideas and tutorials.

Great tutorial! I am so happy you spelled it all out with pictures. I couldn’t visualize how to sew the sides/bottom on!

I tried fusing some plastic bags last night using wax paper, not parchment, and it worked fine. My bags didn’t melt to the wax paper and my iron was fine. Maybe you aren’t supposed to use wax paper on an iron though?

Just wanted to say these are sooooo flippin cute! As is all your stuff. I an just beginning to learn to sew, all self taught 🙂 and your projects are very approachable and I appreciate that. Made my 6yo a circle skirt and it turned out decent. I am learning as I go. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful ideas. Leslie

I just made 2 bags with your tutorial, I was slightly tugging on the stitching to make sure it was strong enough, and the handles ripped off both bags along the top seam 🙁 I did not add a fabric layer to the handles.

Yes, you can mend these bags by placing parchment paper on your ironing board, the bag next, then another layer of parchment between your bag and iron. Just fuse the loose edges of plastic back down. This ability to repair will make your bags last for years. I have some that I made in 2008 that I am still using all the time!

These are tres cute-ay, but what? You had HOW MANY plastic bags from Target? My whole problem is that I don’t actually need more reusable shopping bags. My mind is reeling. Thanks for all the cute tutorials and inspiration. I hope no one who reads your blog ever has 50 plastic bags from Target or anywhere ever again.

I’ve been researching “how to make plastic totes” and have made about three different bags from various newspaper, shopping, and target bags. Here are some tips: -Located near the bottom of the bags is the recycle logo with a number in the middle. Target bags (and a few of the newspaper bags) have the number “4” – this type of plastic seems to work best for this project. -Go to Target’s “Help Desk”, tell them what you are doing, and they will probably let you have a bunch of used bags (this is how I got my supply) -You want a nice sharp sewing needle on your machine, so a #11 works well -The dimensions for the milk bag is the same for the others – “11X11X5” (Dana has that in her instructions) -If you can adjust the pressure on the sewing machine’s foot (for a better grip) then have it set for lightweight to medium fabric -If you don’t want to add fabric to the handles, make them a little thicker (either by folding or adding extra plastic, sew around the edges, and double up (by folding up on the ends of the straps by about an inch) on the ends for extra strength

The dimensions for the milk bag are NOT the same. Look at the original illustration. If the “greens” bag is 11×11, the milk bag is NOT. It looks like it is about 10″ tall x 7″ wide. And it is the same on the sides as the front (10″ tall x 7″ wide), making a square. The other bags are rectangles (11×11 on front but only 11×5 on sides).

THE best plastic bag to plastic fabric to plastic bag tut I’ve seen yet (and thanks to B for the extra news 😉 ). I like to quilt and am going to try quilting the plastic fabric before it becomes a bag … think it might be interesting in looks and use.

Love your site and kind of glad you are not also on FB … just too many places to go in the social web world when 1 will do 😉

WOW! Great idea! I have so many plastic bags (that are now taboo to use) from collecting them over the years. I hate to throw them away (can’t do that either). I love this tutorial on how to repurpose it into a fancy, great looking shopping bag!

So where has this site been all these years that I’ve been looking for a way to make tote bags from used grocery bags??? I was looking for a way to fold & weave the bags, however. The only worry I have is for my iron: what keeps the plastic off/out of the (steam holes) base of the iron?? And I don’t quite understand how to incorporate a fabric layer on the outside. Also, are other bags okay – I NEVER go to Target!! Thanks ever so much for the information!!

Love your tutorial for making recycled green bags. I take sewing and have learned from my sewing instructor to make recycled bags out of animal food bags (i.e.; dog, bird seeds, rabbit food bags made of strong plastic). we made a lining for the bags out of cotton material to make them stronger. Hawaii is one of the states that have banned use of plastic shopping bags so we all have to use recycled paper bags or shopping bags made with fabric or other material. Aloha from Hilo

I would never accumulate 50 Target bags or any similar to that size! And the typical plastic bags from the supermarkets are smaller, but lots of them. How would they work? Not sure ironing them is that easy and you do NOT want plastic sticking to your iron as very hard to remove. You also could recycle fabrics into bag shapes with handles and just line the insides with fewer plastic bags?

I really liked the idea of this project but the plastic bags did not fuse well when I ironed them. Also, going to stores specifically to get a large quantity of unused plastic bags seems counterintuitive to the idea of reducing, recycling and reusing. (You are increasing the demand of plastic bags.) Perhaps using up your personal stash of bags and asking friends/neighbors for their old bags might be a more resourceful way of using up bags.

One would go to the store and ask for USED bags, as most stores have programs/ bins where customers can drop off their used bags. The store then sends them to a recycling plant. Reusing old bags is preferable to recycling them, as it is better for the environment. I think this is a wonderful idea; it DECREASES the demand for plastic bags. Thank you so much for the tutorial!

Ford campaigned their own cars and engines at the Indianapolis 500, and part of the deal would have kept Ferrari entirely out of North American motorsports. The very term doesn’t really bring up visions of Chevys or Hyundais do they. A custom cloth interior option was new and a glove box was added and replaced dash storage bin.

Why would you to the to trouble of collecting (or asking for) 50 (FIFTY!) target bags to make this when you could make bags just as useful from fabric you gave probably lying around in your house? Look in your linen closet. This just seems like “going green gone mad!”

Totally agree with Lisa! Some fools will purposely collect bags to make these silly totes! The same thing can be made with old clothes, sheets, etc. Or you can use plastic bags from shops as garbage bin liners. A+ for effort but I find this idea quite ridiculous and a waste of time.

Well, my parents just let old plastic bags pile up in the back of the kitchen somewhere. Sure we use these plastic bags as trash bags, but we still have plenty of them. Sure it’s ridiculous to go to a store to get 50 plastic bags, but one might as well have 50 plastic bags at home too. I appreciate someone putting this idea up here, even if the way he/she did it is a bit crazy.

I used to come home with ten or more plastic bags from my weekly grocery shop before plastic bags were banned, so it didn’t take long for them to accumulate in my cupboard! I used those plastic bags for all kinds of things, including to line a small rubbish bin, but it took several years to use them all up after the ban was implemented. So no, I do not agree with your statement that this tutorial is “going green gone mad”.

I still get plastic bags when I cross nearby state borders to shop in a store for fabric and craft items, and lately these trips have been on a weekly basis. But unfortunately these bags are bio-degradable, which means that their use is very limited as bio-degradable bags disintegrate after a year or so.